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With the recent quieting of the geomagnetic field, resulting in K values of 0's and 1's, along with a positive-going DST value, the broadcast band on Wednesday and Thursday night was much more vibrant than it has been in several weeks.

Being located on the eastern shoreline of Mayne Island, the direction towards all of the U.S.A. is over many miles of saltwater, so my main interest is in domestic / U.S.A. DX.

Wednesday evening netted two new states on the BCB ... Kansas and Indiana, for states #27 and #28 respectively, both heard on the Perseus SDR and my 10' x 20' amplified loop.

KWOD, on 1660KHz, identifying as "The Business Channel", was logged during a short top-of-the-hour fade-up at 0600z (10PM local time). Their night power is listed as 1,000 watts while their day power is 10,000 watts.

KWOD - Kansas courtesy: https://www.google.ca/maps

KWOD Towers courtesy https://www.google.ca/maps

The transmitter site is located in the middle of a quiet residential district of older homes ... on all four sides.

I shudder to think what RFI problems those living in the adjacent homes must suffer when they are on daytime power!

WSLM - Indiana courtesy :https://www.google.ca/maps

WSLM, on 1220KHz, was also logged at 0600z, during a two-minute fade-up and in the middle of the local weather report.

Interestingly, the station's night-power is listed as "82 watts", which, judging by the readability of their signal, was not the case. Perhaps the engineer just 'forgot' to switch from their daylight power of 5,000 watts!

Their phased antenna array puts their main lobes, due east and west, so evidently I was catching the northern edge of their pattern.

courtesy: https://www.google.ca/maps

See what you can hear their during the short recording made of  the "Country WSLM" weather report





I have yet to check last night's recordings to see if conditions have held-up for two night's running ... more later if so.
Steve McDonald, VE7SL, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from British Columbia, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].

This is the Pixie’s “big brother”. I have mentioned it before in this blog. It has more power than the Pixie and a better RX. Best of all it costs just over £15 built with free shipping from Hong Kong.

See http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Frog-Sounds-HAM-Radio-QRP-Kit-Telegraph-CW-Transceiver-Receiver-Radio-Station-V3-/251405614850 .

Roger Lapthorn, G3XBM, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Cambridge, England.

Yesterday I found my rechargeable 12V battery and charged it up. I also checked the Pixie I built as a kit for dry joints and shorts. As all looks good, I hope to test this on the air over the weekend or early next week.

There are a couple of locals I’d like to test with initially, although I am expecting to suffer from AM breakthrough mainly from broadcast stations very close to our 40m band. Probably there would be less breakthrough in the daytime? My antenna is short and low on 40m (a Par triband end-fed covering 10m/20m/40m) so any contacts will be good!

I can test it first on a signal generator and then a power meter. If it works, I’d expect a sensitivity of around -100dBm and a power out of around 200mW on 40m. We’ll see. Even -80dBm and 100mW would be enough to work locals as long as AM breakthrough is at a manageable level.

Roger Lapthorn, G3XBM, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Cambridge, England.

I’m pleased to announce that beginning February 28th, Cale Mooth’s Amateur Radio Weekly will be available each Saturday morning on AmateurRadio.com.

I began reading Cale’s (KK4HSX) newsletter a few weeks ago and was impressed by its style and organization. He does a tremendous job curating some of the best articles and posts from the week and puts them into his newsletter. I think you’ll find he has a real knack for finding the interesting stuff that might not otherwise make it onto your radar — without having to wade through lists of endless links.

If you’re already a subscriber to our daily Amateur Radio Newsletter, we’ll include a link each week to a post featuring the latest issue of Amateur Radio Weekly so you won’t miss it. You can also subscribe directly to his weekly e-mail newsletter by clicking here.

Thank you, Cale! We’re excited to read what you discover!

Matt Thomas, W1MST, is the managing editor of AmateurRadio.com. Contact him at [email protected].

Stories you’ll find in our March, 2015 issue:

Catch the Action in the Air and On the Air
By Brian and Jo Marie Topolski
Once again, Brian and Jo Marie Topolski take us all to the air show with some dazzling photos and the inside scoop about what and where to listen when you take your scanner with you. Brian also has a salute to woman aviation pioneer, Julie Clark, a regular fixture at many air shows, and a look inside his own air show command post.

The Air Show Experience
By Kevin Burke
TSM air show regular contributor, Kevin Burke, shows us his own (and his son’s) photographic touch along with his own experiences at air shows. He also offers a photographic “Study in Blues” as well as a review of the Bearcat BC-125AT at an air show.

Now Try ‘Scanner-less’ Aviation Monitoring!
By Richard Fisher KI6SN
Want to catch all the aviation action but don’t have a scanner or live near an airport? Not to worry, says Richard Fisher, you can enjoy aviation monitoring to the fullest extent possible, and at no cost. Richard shows us how.

TSM Reviews: Teak Publishing’s 2015 Air Show Guide
By Ken Reitz KS4ZR
For many years, readers of Monitoring Times magazine came to rely on the expertise of its military communications columnist and MT assistant editor, Larry Van Horn N5FPW, to provide the very latest in frequencies used by all the top aviation demonstration teams at air shows across North America. And, even though MT closed its doors in December 2013, Larry has since continued to provide these frequencies in the form of an annual Air Show Guide in Kindle format. Here’s a review of his latest Air Show Guide.

TSM Air Show Schedule
US Navy Blue Angels; USAF Thunderbirds; Canadian Snowbirds; Breitling Jet Team; Raiders Flight Demo Team; GEICO Skytypers; Team Oracle’s Sean D. Tucker; John Klatt Air Shows, and Air Combat Command F-16 North American air show schedules.

Scanning America By Dan Veenaman
Hard-Learned Radio Civics Lesson in D.C.

Federal Wavelengths By Chris Parris
Flying with Federal Aviation

Utility Planet By Hugh Stegman NV6H
How to Hear HF Civil Aviation

Digital HF: Intercept and Analyze By Mike Chace-Ortiz AB1TZ/G6DHU
US Coast Guard, Customs & Border Patrol COTHEN Network

HF Utility Logs By Mike Chace-Ortiz and Hugh Stegman

Amateur Radio Insights By Kirk Kleinschmidt NT0Z
RFI Part 2: Finding, Fixing or Fleeing

Radio 101 By Ken Reitz KS4ZR
Intro to FTA Satellite and Advanced Cord-Cutting

Radio Propagation By Tomas Hood NW7US
Space Weather Terms

The World of Shortwave Listening By Keith Perron
Armed Forces Network Taiwan (AFNT)

The Shortwave Listener By Fred Waterer
World Languages via SW Radio Web Sites

Amateur Radio Satellites By Keith Baker KB1SF/VA3KSF
AMSATs: From OSCAR-1 to FOX-1A

The Longwave Zone By Kevin O’Hern Carey WB2QMY
Longwave: A Cradle for High-Tech

Adventures in Radio Restoration By Rich Post KB8TAD
The Admiral Bean-Counter Special: Part II

The Broadcast Tower By Doug Smith W9WI
What Happens to a Dead Radio Station?

Antenna Connections By Dan Farber AC0LW
Got a Match: Methods of Matching Coaxial Cable to Antennas

The Spectrum Monitor is available in PDF format which can be read on any desktop, laptop, iPad®, Kindle® Fire, or other device capable of opening a PDF file. Annual subscription (12 issues, beginning with the January 2015 issue) is $24. Individual monthly issues are available for $3 each.

Ken Reitz, KS4ZR, is publisher and managing editor of The Spectrum Monitor. Contact him at [email protected].

Michael Brown, KG9DW, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Illinois, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

Privacy and freedom are constantly traded in for a (often false) sense of security. This has nothing to do with ham radio, you’d probably think, but even our hobby isn’t immune.

Repeaters
Repeaters are only useful if the antennas can be placed high above ground. In the Netherlands we use a number of existing locations, most of which were once used for analog TV and radio. The owners of the towers decided that safety and security will prevail over (safe, terrorist-free) ham radio.

The following systems will be affected:

• ATV repeater PI6ATV, both analog and digital,
• 2 meter repeater PI3UTR,
• D-star repeater PI1UTR,
• DMR repeater PI1UTR,
• RX co-location for the 70cm repeater PI2NOS,
• RX co-location for the 10 meter repeater PI6TEN,
• Four Hamnet access points and links.

There is a chance that the equipment can be relocated to a lower section of the tower while keeping the antennas on the original altitude. Even in the best case scenario the costs of relocating will exceed the minimal financial reserves – good coax cable is expensive, and we would need a lot of it.

I’ll end with this quote: Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. (Benjamin Franklin)

Hans, PD0AC, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Almere, The Netherlands. Contact him at [email protected].